Saturday, December 13, 2008

$#*&$(@*&#(@*#&

So... not only has my computer died to the point of having to ship it back to the manufacturer (which I had to pay for - a thing I find rather irksome), but Andy's computer has now started showing severe signs of oh-no-not-good-at-all-ness as well.

He had to erase and reinstall his hard drive. Mine was sent back with no way of recovering anything on the system. Luckily... I have learned my lesson from the two prior computers that have completely died on me in the last year - and all my worldly electronic possessions are now stored (thankfully) on an external hard drive.

I am therefore typing this on the one working computer we have left, which is the oldest of the bunch and the one we expected to perish at any moment. I hate this keyboard with a passion, but Andy's recovered system now no longer knows it has wireless capacity... and so he is again on hold snaking his way through automated customer support in search of an actual person.

I am angry. I am aware of how silly it is to get angry about something so tiny as this. Yet, if I am going to be honest about where I am... it is angry, frustrated, tired, disappointed with a tinge of "not fair" thrown in for good measure.

Apparently, the problem (according to Andy's last customer service call) is Windows Vista. More specifically... it is the automatic updates scheduled for Windows Vista by Microsoft. They are big no-nos, we have now been told.

Sigh.

In the meantime, much more important things are going on in the world and, even more importantly, in the lives of some of my loved ones. Thus, I will stop prattling on about my information woes and instead go back to praying for health and miracles elsewhere.

5 comments:

Robin Edgar said...

"all my worldly electronic possessions are now stored (thankfully) on an external hard drive."

Two HDs are better than one. I have four external hard drives and try have *everything* backed up on two of them. Even external hard drives can die on you. You should back up your most important files to CD or DVD.

Michelle Hope said...

Oh, Vista is the WORST. Sorry you're having a hard time with technology. That makes me realize I should really back everything up. I've been bad about that.

Computers are so maddening sometimes. Today I was in a tech rehearsal and my Powerpoint slideshow refused to open. Just refused. After working many times before. (*&#*(@@!! I had a tiny temper tantrum, and then moved on. I have until Monday to figure it out.

Genevra said...

Well, it's nice to know I am not alone in my electronic struggles.

Robin... great idea about multiple backups. Andy and I are checking out some online options (though that makes me nervous for other reasons!).

Best of luck in getting your PowerPoints to work, Michelle!

Michelle Hope said...

It worked today! Hopefully everything will go well for the performance tomorrow.

Robin Edgar said...

Most of my really important files a repeatedly backed up on DVDs and multiple HDs. I also try to have at least two external hard drives that have pretty much everything duplicated on them. BTW If you have important things on floppy disks etc. back them up now. Some of my old floppy disks seem to have gone completely blank, or are not readable by the floppy disk drives that I recently tried to access them with. . . *Most* of what is on them is backed up to DVDs and HDs but I may have lost a few important files.